


nothing alike

by nightswatch



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 03:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3634911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightswatch/pseuds/nightswatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enjolras comes across a guy who's trying to steal his car. Except that he's not <em>actually</em> stealing his car.</p>
            </blockquote>





	nothing alike

**Author's Note:**

> For Matthew and Nasa Dog. I hope you like it :D

Enjolras huffed, trying to pull his car keys out of the pocket of his jacket without dropping the watermelon that Courfeyrac had asked him to buy. See, it had actually been Courfeyrac’s turn to do the grocery shopping on Saturday, but then he’d decided to invite all of their friends over for an impromptu movie night and they practically had zero food left in their fridge now.

They’d made it through Sunday by ordering enough pizza to last them for lunch and dinner, but now it was Enjolras’ turn to make sure that they wouldn’t starve this week, even though he definitely could have done without yet another item being added to his to-do list. He’d already had an appointment with one of his teachers, had spent two hours at the library to find some more material for his tutor group, had lived through his most hated class, even without getting into an argument with the teacher, and he’d had lunch with Joly to talk about the mental health campaign that they were planning and now he was about ready to collapse.

Except that he still had an essay to write and two chapters to read when he got home. It was a good thing that he’d remembered to buy more coffee.

Enjolras eventually managed to fish his car keys out of his pocket and stepped up to his car. He was just about to unlock it when he saw that there was someone already sitting in the driver’s seat. There was a guy inside his car and he wasn’t even trying to steal it. At least the guy being a car thief would have made sense to Enjolras.

But he was just listening to the radio. And he had the volume turned up so loud that Enjolras could hear on the outside that he was listening to _Uptown Funk_. It wasn’t that Enjolras didn’t like the song, but Courfeyrac had had it on repeat for the past month or so and Enjolras had reached a point where he got a headache every time he heard it. Really, he’d never admit it, but Enjolras was actually starting to miss Courfeyrac singing _Anaconda_ in the shower.

Anyhow, that guy’s song choice shouldn’t concern him. Not at all. What should concern him was that there was a stranger sitting inside his car, headbanging and drumming on the steering wheel, then switching to air guitar, then to some sort of jumpy dance move that involved a lot of bouncing and also a hint of jazz hands.

Enjolras, frozen in place at first, eventually brought himself to knock on the window and the guy stopped bouncing immediately, staring at him with wide eyes. He had rather nice eyes, but he’d also broken into Enjolras’ car, which didn’t exactly speak for him. Enjolras stared right back at him, doing his best to look as pissed off as possible.

The guy fiddled with the radio and the music stopped, then he rolled down the window, frowning at him. “Can I help you?”

Enjolras almost wanted to laugh, because that was just ridiculous. “You’re in my car,” he said gruffly. “What the hell are you doing _in my car_?”

“Are you high?” the guy asked, narrowing his eyes. “You don’t look high, but… did you, like, take something? Are you feeling okay?”

“If this is some sort of car thief strategy to confuse people into thinking that–”

“Dude…”

“Do not _dude_ me,” Enjolras snapped. He didn’t like dealing with the police, but he was going to call them if he had to.

“Well, angel-face, this is not your car.”

“Of course it is my car,” Enjolras said loudly. “I parked it right here.”

“Hey, just hold on a second,” the guy said and opened the glove compartment, rummaging around in it. “Here…” He pulled out a slip of paper. “This is my registration, see, and that’s my name right here. I’m Grantaire and this is my car, okay? You need to chill.”

Enjolras stared at the slip of paper that very clearly stated that the car belonged to a Julien Grantaire. Which was obviously the guy who was sitting in… well, not Enjolras’ car. “This is not my car.” It was painfully obvious, really. Enjolras’ car didn’t have a cassette deck, didn’t have colorful smudges on the passenger seat, didn’t have a huge blank canvas on the backseat.

“True,” Grantaire said, nodding gravely. “Honestly, I’m glad that you’ve realized, because I was a little scared that you were gonna try to fight me. And, no offense, but I could totally take you in a fight.”

“I…” Enjolras looked around the parking lot. Where on earth had he parked his car, then? “I’m really sorry. I was so sure that this was my car.”

“It’s cool, man,” Grantaire said, winking at him. “I’m a little embarrassed about my awkward dance moves that you got to witness, but hey, I guess we just have the same car, right?”

“Right,” Enjolras muttered. He was only now starting to realize that he’d just accused some random guy of trying to steal his car and said random guy wasn’t at all bothered by it, he was just smiling up at him. And Enjolras still had no idea where his car was and he should probably go find it, but he wasn’t quite sure how exactly to proceed in a situation like this. It looked like that simple apology had been enough for Grantaire, but Enjolras still felt incredibly embarrassed.

“Are you okay?” Grantaire asked, brows knit together.

“I’m fine,” Enjolras said quickly. “I just, um, I seem to have lost my car.”

“Okay,” Grantaire mumbled, “can you move over a bit?”

Enjolras frowned, but did step aside, his frown only deepening when Grantaire rolled up the window and got out of his car. “What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you find your car, silly,” Grantaire said. “What’s your name anyway?”

“I’m Enjolras. But you really don’t have to–”

“Well,” Grantaire said, “you look like you’re about to hyperventilate, so how about you just let me help you?”

“I am _not_ hyperventilating,” Enjolras said lowly. He was just stressed, that was all.

Grantaire snorted. “Not yet.” He started walking down the row of cars and Enjolras could do nothing but follow him. He cast one last look at Grantaire’s car, entirely convinced that it wasn’t his when he saw the _honk if you’re horny_ bumper sticker.

“It should be here somewhere.”

Grantaire hummed. “It can’t be that hard to find.”

But it was that hard to find. Enjolras was convinced that he’d parked it really close to the entrance of the store, which was what he told Grantaire over and over again. “Maybe someone did steal it,” Enjolras mused. “It can’t just be gone.”

“Maybe it came to life and drove off on its own.”

Enjolras rolled his eyes. “This isn’t funny.” He absolutely had no time for a trip to the police station and he was still carrying around that goddamned watermelon and it was slowly but surely starting to get heavy.

“It is a little funny,” Grantaire said, smirking at Enjolras. “Alright, let’s check if it’s on the other side of the entrance.”

“But I parked it over here.”

“How sure are you? Like, would you bet your life on it?”

Enjolras was _pretty_ sure. Although maybe it wouldn’t hurt to check, because he’d been running around in a bit of a daze all day, trying to get everything on his list done as quickly and efficiently as possible, so maybe he just hadn’t paid a lot of attention when he’d parked his car.

They walked past the entrance to the other side of the parking lot and– “Oh, it’s right there.”

Grantaire frowned. “Where?”

“Right there,” Enjolras said, pointing at his car.

“That’s a Chevy,” Grantaire said slowly, “Enjolras, I don’t even drive a Chevy, how the fuck did you mistake my car for yours?”

Enjolras shrugged helplessly. Honestly, he didn’t even care that he quite obviously didn’t know a thing about cars and couldn’t tell them apart properly, he was just glad to have his car back. His and Grantaire’s car did look vaguely similar, though. “Well, they’re both black.”

“They’re both black,” Grantaire echoed, slowly shaking his head. “This is completely ridiculous. They look nothing alike.”

“I really am sorry. You probably had better things to do than help me find my car.”

“I wasn’t actually very helpful.” Grantaire grinned, watching as Enjolras dumped his groceries in the trunk of his car. “Although I have to say that this made my day significantly less boring.”

Enjolras sighed. “Well, I’m glad that at least your day isn’t a complete mess.”

Grantaire leaned against his car, head tilted. “Bad day, huh?”

Enjolras slammed his trunk shut. “Not bad, I’m just busy and I got up a six this morning and I don’t think I’ve had enough coffee to compensate.”

“I have a feeling that you’re going to make up for that lack of coffee when you’re home, since you apparently got enough to last you about a month,” Grantaire said, nodding at the bag with all the coffee that Enjolras had bought, “well, maybe you should consider taking a nap instead.”

Enjolras folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t have time to take a nap.”

“ _Everyone_ has time to take a nap,” Grantaire said. “You know what happens when you don’t get enough sleep? You think that random ass people are trying to steal your car.”

Enjolras bit his lip, a blush creeping onto his cheeks. “I said I was sorry.”

“I know. That doesn’t make this whole thing any less hilarious.” Grantaire smiled and it made his eyes crinkle and now that Enjolras didn’t have to worry about someone stealing his car anymore, he could concentrate on the quite amazing color they were. Grantaire cleared his throat. “What?”

“Nothing,” Enjolras said. “I’m just…”

“Spacing out a bit, huh?” Grantaire asked. “Seriously, just take a fucking nap, you obviously need one. I mean, who gets up at six in the morning anyway? You look a bit too young to be some sort of super important business dude who needs to sit in his office at the break of dawn to answer emails and make his secretary cry.”

Enjolras’ lips twitched. “Nothing like that, no. Just classes and appointments with teachers and–”

“You’re a student?” Grantaire asked. “Dude, you’ll never have this much time to sleep again in your entire life. Use that time. Sleep twelve hours a day.”

“You seem to be an expert.”

“I am,” Grantaire said, grinning wryly.

They both fell silent then and Enjolras was only now remembering that they were actually strangers. Enjolras often talked to people he didn’t know, although it usually served some sort of purpose – inviting them to one of his student group’s meetings, trying to get teachers to support them, things like that. He didn’t have random chats with virtual strangers about his day in grocery store parking lots.

“Well, I should get going,” Enjolras said.

Grantaire smiled. “Home to _not_ take a nap?”

“I might consider taking a nap after all,” Enjolras said, smiling back at him.

“Sure you will. Drive safely, yeah?”

Enjolras nodded. “Thanks again.”

“Anytime,” Grantaire said, looking at him for a long moment before he eventually turned to leave.

Enjolras was still watching him walk away, suddenly wondering if he should have said something else, if he maybe should have given him his number, because it somehow felt strange to him that they’d quite possibly never see each other again, when Grantaire turned back around.

“I was just thinking,” Grantaire said, “you know, if you ever run out of coffee, and I know that it’s unlikely, but if it happens, I know a place.” He looked almost nervous now, hands buried in the pockets of his jeans. “Where we could have coffee. Maybe together.”

“Actually… I was going to give you my number. Or maybe ask for yours,” Enjolras said. “In case I ever need help looking for my car again.”

Grantaire laughed. “Yeah, that is an excellent idea.”

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, if you asked Enjolras what kind of car he has, he'd probably just say, "It's small and black."


End file.
